Fig. 3: Short, single-phase grooming events are more exaggerated than syntactic grooming in Sapap3^−/− mice.

A Sapap3^−/− mice show significantly more grooming events compared to wildtype controls (Mann–Whitney U test, p < 0.001). B Total grooming duration is comparable between Sapap3^−/− and wildtype mice (Mann–Whitney U test, p = ns). C Self-grooming behaviour of Sapap3^−/− mice compared to wildtype mice is characterised by a large proportion of grooming events of short duration. The x-axis is depicted on a log₁₀ scale. D Both short grooming events (<3 s duration) as well as long grooming events (>3 s duration) were significantly enhanced in Sapap3^−/− mice compared to wildtype controls (Mann–Whitney U, p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively). Self-grooming behaviour depended both on genotype and bout length (ART ANOVA, p_{genotype*grooming type} < 0.01). All plots illustrate data from n = 9 Sapap3^−/− and n = 9 wildtype mice; box whisker plots were designed as described in the legend of Fig. 2. **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ns non-significant.